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Dear Sir,
Congratulations and thank you for your beautiful and informative website.
I am researching on Mechua Bazar (Machua Bazar) currently a fruit market and am really looking out for information on it. It would mean the world to me if you could point me in the right direction.
Looking forward to your reply
Warm regards
Soham

I thank you Dr. Suchandra for citing puronokolkata in your article. I am eager, and so must be other readers, to see your recent paper on Ghat. Would you kindly let us have details needed for access.
Warm wishes

I am looking for historic information on old schools like Scottish church, Kalikrishna girls, Bethune, etc. For writing an article on 19th century schools and their role in spread of education in Bengal.
Regards
M K Das

I am delighted to find your wonderful website which is helping me in my research of my family who were living in Calcutta from the 1700’s until the mid 1950’s. I have been able to see from all the photographs and maps available where they lived and it has illuminated my work and brought it all to life…I am only sad that my father is no longer alive to see again images that he would have been familiar with.
Thank you wholeheartedly…I will be visiting often.

Hello Sue,
I am elated to know how much you felt about puronokolkata.com. It is wonderful to realize that it helps research and does more as a memory bank to those genuinely love to experience past Calcutta through contemporary paintings and photographs. I am sad too because of not being able to reach your father in time. My respects to his memory and warm wishes to you

I am also very impressed with your wonderful site. I too am an independent private researcher looking into a family ancestor. Is it possible you could connect me to a person who would be prepared to search the archive at 6 Bhawani, Dutta Lane Kolkata for a fee?

Just to inform you that I have completed my book on Heritage Retailers of Calcutta. It is now with the printer and should be released in January/February 2020. INTACH were very kind to sponsor my book.

I will be in Kolkata from December to end February and will come and meet you with a signed copy of the book.

Hello Ashish,
Thanks so much for the happy news. I will be eagerly waiting to see your Heritage Retailers of Calcutta. It is a fascinating field, and after the brief chat we had 2 year back I am pretty sure that yours should be a well-researched book. Looking forward to meet you, if possible in December or early January, as I might be away for a while from then on. Warm regards and hearty wishes

Greetings. Enlightened and deeply impressed to see this website and will keep on visiting from time to time. Congratulations for making this and contributing towards the History and Heritage of Calcutta.
I cordially invite you to my own visual work on Calcutta – on English Heritage and Bengali Culture…and I look forward to work and explore, more.
Of course my deep interest is also in exploring and collecting old Calcutta prints, images, ephemera and books etc …the history they carry and the enchanting story they convey.

Thank you Anirban for your warm and kind words. The comments have a special significance to me. Last year when I first visited your site, the
splendour of its contents and the aesthetics of presentation fascinated me. I remain an earnest admirer of your visuals since then. I would look
forward to meeting you personally if you find some idle time to exchange views and ideas in areas of our common interest. I am available on
phone # 9831240820. Warm wishes and regards

I am interested to know if there has been any attempt made to compare today’s map of Kolkata with historical maps of Calcutta. There are several maps available online; three of them, one published in 1784, one in 1842 and one in 1842 are noteworthy. We can see Shyambazar Five Point crossing marked in 1784 map. In all these maps Chitpoor road was the widest among all which is the narrowest in today’s map. The historical names of the streets are very interesting to observe.

By far the most candid will of the mighty city of Calcutta. It demands making, let’s say, a 100 episode TV series based on mainly what you have researched. The entire literature can be scripted and narrated. I am very keen but it requires obviously capital. Worth approaching the West Bengal Government.

Thank you Soumyadip for your kind words and constructive suggestions. Since I have practically no time for anything more than what I do now, I would be too happy if you or someone else make an honest attempt to bring about puronokolkata resources for wider public awareness. Wish you best

Dear Sekhar,
I am happy to note your active interest in my puronokolkata initiative and that you wish to participate in its developmental projects. To explore possibilities, we may need to talk some day at your convenience. You may call me on my mobile # 9831240820 for further communication.
Warm regards

My parents are Bengali and I was bought up in Britain. I am currently designing a documentary of the first generation of immigrants who left Calcutta in the late1960s and early 1970s. Most came to complete postgraduate studies or expand their careers. That story has never been portrayed i.e. story of educated Bengalis from professional backgrounds immigrating. This is a wonderful website for me to imbibe the Calcutta my father grew up in. Thank you.

Dear sir,I am very impressed by your work.I am doing my doctorate thesis on park street ,kolkata and I want to get in touch with as A I feel you are atreasure trove of knowledge.Please pass on your contact.Regards,Deepashree Choudhury

Dear Deepashree,
Glad to know of your interest. I will be available in Kolkata around mid-October. Meanwhile, if you like call me on WhatsApp no. +9124299770 between 2pm and 6pm. Please allow me to admit, I am no treasure trove of knowledge, as you suggest, and to my mind, best not to depend unduly on personal knowledge when resources are wide open online. I might be of some help to you in finding information in your research context. Warm wishes

This blog is outstanding, kudos to your effort! Don’t know why I did not come across it earlier. I am presently pursuing my MPhil research on visual documentation of Calcutta photo studios, and would like to get in touch about archives and resources – I am commenting here as I could not find any contact information on the website. Please let me know if there are any possible ways to connect.

We, at Roli Books, are looking for photographs for our upcoming book on Calcutta to be published later this year. We would like to see the high resolutions images of the city which may be used for the book. If you are interested please us the high resolution images on the following email address.

Hello Disha,
I see that you are interested to know the sources of all the rare Calcutta images I have brought out here in context of my writings. I am not sure, if my response will be good enough for your purpose. The images have been gathered from very many sources freely accessible online. The British Library happens to be the most important one among them. The paintings and photographs brought about in context of purunokolkata are scarce and dated beyond the scope of copyright restrictions. I took pain, in worldly sense, to search them out and again to identify the creators and the dates of the works, which often ended in sheer frustration. I do regret that I have not credited the source religiously, but sometimes I did so willfully when a particular source is found reblogging images and unjustly claims copyright of every image posted there. Hope you excuse my limitations. Wish you luck

Thank you very much sir for this highly informative as well as beautiful website. It has helped me a lot in imparting knowledge to my students by preparing presentations with the help of the photographs and information that you have provided here.thanks again .

Sir I will be in Kolkata whole of January completing my research on Heritage Retail Shops of Kolkata. Would like very much to meet you at your convenience. My mobile number is 9967707788. Look forward to hearing from you. Best regards Ashish Sanyal

I just now discovered your wonderful website by chance in my attempt to find information about ‘Firpo’s’. I am British, and have been visiting India and Calcutta for several years. It has always been my favourite city in India. Very recently I discovered that my Great Uncle had visited during the 1940’s. He was a member of the Royal Air Force at the time. I have a small number of his old photograph’s from his visit to the city, and I would be happy to send them to you for your archive, if provided with an email address. Keep up the hard work.

Hello Shaun,
Thank you very much for your kind words and for your generous offer of old photographs of your Great Uncle when in Calcutta. Those 1940’s Calcutta images are precious. I would be too happy to accept them as your gift. Yet it is a good idea to see beforehand the thumbnail view of the originals and their descriptions (whatever available). This will help me to avoid chances of their lying unused. You may send copies at asoknath.m@gmail.com. Warm regards and wishes
Asok

Dear Ajantrik, on Wednesday 9th August 2017 10am -4pm there is a workshop, A Tradition of Care – Anglo-Indian Service Organizations – Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, at Loreto College, Middleton Row (Wiliam Jones Sarani), organized by the Derozio Anglo-Indian Studies Forum (affiliated with the Derozio Anglo-Indian Studies Collection at Central Library, U of Calcutta. You are welcome to attend.

hello.your website is wonderful and blogs are very informative .I am doing my doctoral thesis on the city of Kolkata and would like to contact you regarding my project.My work involves Morphological transformation of Park Street Kolkata.regards,

Glad that you find my site interesting and useful. I have a plan to post on Esplanade area in near future. You may expect there some useful things. I would love to know more of your work. Kindly give me a call (9831240820) a day before coming. Wishes

Hi, I am using your website for some sources that I need for my doctoral thesis. How do I cite you guys? This is specially in reference to the article on Calcutta School-Book Society. I need: Name of author/compiler/director/editor etc., version, publisher or sponsor of the site, date of publication…

Hi… So “Ajantrik” would be your pseudonym right? We use the MLA Format. Although the 8th edition is out, I prefer using the 7th one. So the above mentioned criteria: Name of author/compiler/director/editor etc., version, publisher or sponsor of the site, date of publication – these are what I need for the same.

It is overwhelming to see such a website being maintained. I am currently working on a research in the urban form of kolkata and how it has changed since the time of the Britishers. I am trying to document mostly central Kolkata. Would love to get in touch in this regard. How may I contact you?

New Market c 1870: Inaccurate date for picture. Two major reasons: (1) I doubt the ‘Kolkata Municipal Corporation’ existed then. (2) The AC was invented in the early 1900s. So I am surprised to see window ACs in an 1870 picture!

Thank you Lord Gothmog for pointing out the silly slip-up. You are right; the New Market was built by the architect Richard Bayne in 1873 and inaugurated next year. By this time Bourne left India for good without having an opportunity to take shot of the New Market. My short descriptive note was all wrong. The page, actually one of my unfinished trial posts, is being now withdrawn. Hopefully someday it should reappear with worthwhile content. My apology to my readers, warm wishes for you

Thank you Govind! I am very glad that you have been doing a project on colonial Kolkata. You are welcome to use the visuals brought out in this site. Most of these are in public domain and free from copyright restrictions. Quite a few, however, are digitally edited and kept in my database. If you make use of those by directly downloading from the site, you may like to add an acknowledgement. I look forward to viewing your work. Warm regards. Wish you every success

Having been away from wordpress for a few months, I seem to have missed out on a lot. Thank you so much for sharing this bit of history with the world and more importantly, with us nostalgic Bengalis. Your posts inspire me to write about Bengal and make me ache for Calcutta, sitting here in bustling Bombay.

I am immensely grateful to you for sharing your treasure trove of photographs, pictures and sketches to give us rare glimpses of how Calcutta, kind of came by. Your wonder narrative based on your extensive research of various archives is equally rich and fulfilling. Calcutta is where i belong, although i live elsewhere. I am so pleased that i came ambling by. Thank you.

Hello Subhrendu,
Glad that you like my presentations so much. Whatever I contributed are all for the fulfilment of longing of my readers like you to glimpse through Calcutta’s past intimately related to India’s nation building. Wish I were younger to carry on this initiative further. Warm wishes

I am indeed very grateful to you, Souvik, for pointing out the silly mistake I committed. The image of the Horse-driven tram was actually a photograph of London tram car, which I have now replaced with the Bourne and Shepherd photograph of Calcutta tram that I already used in my Armenian Ghat post. My sincere thanks and wishes

Hello,
Please forgive me for the delay.
Yes, Souvik, You may click on the cover-photo of my FB Home to see the following annotation provided there: “Calcutta Tram Ride 1945. Photograph taken by Clyde Waddell, an American military photographer. Courtesy: South Asia Section, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania — at Calcutta.” Perhaps you would like to see the source image at
Have a nice time

Wonderfully recorded and done with great care ! History of a great city came alive with such a website. A must see every Indian . Many thanks & gratitude for such a great efforts. Request for further update from time to time with more current inputs if possible !

Hi , I found your website really very exciting and interesting. I lived for 33 years in Kolkata but knew so little about my birthplace. Now so far and gained a new perspective towards Kolkata.
Thanks for your effort and time.

Hello Shekhar,
You are most welcome! None of these images are mine. Quite a few, however, are digitally edited and kept in my database. If use those, you may like to add acknowledgement. I look forward to viewing your work. Warm regards.

Suchoriteshu Dipanjan,
So glad that you do research for a documentation project on fascinating old Chitpur and its heritage. I would be most happy to share with you my humble experience and knowledge. You may drop a line at asoknath.m@gmail.com. Kind regards